Posts Tagged ‘jon stewart’

Being back in D.C. for a weekend made me want to stay and start a farm right in Southeast and never leave. I loved seeing all my friends and community and the happy streets in autumn.

What I was not expecting, was the absolute insanity that came with the Rally to Restore Sanity. There were giant golden samurai dragons, crazy costumes, and wayyy too many people for the city of D.C. to handle. But my main feeling was that there was no real point to the rally…unless it was to show our power in numbers or how witty we can be in sign making.

Not to hate on my fellow liberals, but c’mon, where were the 200,000 hyped up people busing in from all over the country when Congress was trying to shut down health care reform (and were mildly successful at it) or when BP flooded our ocean with oil??

I guess I was happy to see that we even made it out though; liberals showed up for something! We turned out so much that I had to climb aboard a port-a-potty on the National Mall to see anything above all the people. Had we had the same fervor 3 days later at the election polls, maybe we wouldn’t have lost so many damn seats to Republicans…but hey it’s not like Congress was able to pass much progressive policy when Democrats held the reigns, so what’s the difference right?

I had the pleasure of being accompanied by a French man to this rally, and it was interesting to get his perspective on the spectacle, coming from a country of active protesters. The first point he raised was about the Mall being sectioned off for the rally-goers , from VIP ticketed areas in the front, to people falling out of trees trying to see in the back. “So in the States you have to buy a ticket to protest?” he asked. I could only chuckle, its kind of true.

The second point he raised though, caught me off guard since it is a question I have been asking myself this year about the food movement. ‘Where are all the brown folk?” Interesting question, since the Tea Party is what we usually refer to as being the white homogeneous group. But as I looked around, I realized he was absolutely right. Was it because there was no cause to this rally? Was it because brown folks don’t really identify as much with burners and old hippies marching to the rally on a giant dragon float?

I think it’s a good question for Jon Stewart and the liberal crew…it makes me think of a quote my mom sent me:

“Should the American people put their faith in a white billionaire boys’ club to lead the revolution on behalf of poor people of color?”

In other words, should we be waiting for Congress and groups like the Tea Party to run shit for us? Among many reasons like, no ’cause they are idiots and have lost their damn minds, I’m pretty sure Jon Stewart and fans were trying to say hell no simply based on the fact that they don’t represent our diverse America and our very diverse group of liberals.

So I ask where then was our diversity in that huge display of solidarity in sanity? Why did we look like a younger, more outrageously dressed version of the Tea Party that day?

I hope that any future revolutionary-inspiring, Tea Party-bashing rallies held in our nation’s capital have way more brown folks participating…and rally around an actual purpose.